


Over And Over (And Over) Again

by flipflop_diva



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Multi, Post-Canon, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Telepathic Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-08 16:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11085024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: The first time was a massive error in judgement. Michael knew that. But this next time — this next time was going to be perfect. There was no way Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason would ever figure it out.





	Over And Over (And Over) Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [klutzy_girl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/klutzy_girl/gifts).



> Written for klutzy_girl for the 2017 Soul Exchange Fest. Based on this awesome prompt: _Multiple Soulmates - The four of them are soulmates and family. It shouldn't be happening and Michael's freaking out because he fucked up so badly - they keep finding each other, no matter how many time he resets everything._
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

The first time was a massive error in judgement. It was perfect on paper, yet Michael had seen so many of these perfect scenarios dissolve into utter chaos because of the unpredictable nature of these humans that he really should have seen it coming. He’d seen it coming in other people’s plans, always sitting back and gleefully watching as things went to hell for them. Literally. But he had completely missed it in his own.

Stupid. Just stupid.

He should have been more careful. But it had seemed foolproof. Give four people the illusion of paradise by really putting them in their own version of hell. Let them drive each other to madness.

It was glorious! It would have changed the way all architects worked. And it had been going so well, too. Flaming pits and fire storms. Banishments and murders. They were all on edge, hating their life more with each passing day.

He should have known it was too good to be true. 

And it was all because of that damn Eleanor. That he hadn’t seen coming. She was supposed to have been the least intelligent of them all. How had she of all people figured out his masterful plan?

But this time. This time his plan was going to work. This time his plan would indeed be the model that all future architects would follow, the most perfect version of hell to ever exist. 

This time no one would discover his plan …

•••

Eleanor had noticed the mark on her wrist a few minutes before the door opened and Michael the architect came in. But in the middle of all her questions (okay, cool, she was dead. Awesome) and concerns (Okay, wait. There was a mistake. That Eleanor Michael kept going on about? Not her. Definitely not her. Fork), it was the last thing on her mind. And later, when she did remember it, Michael was long gone.

“Janet?” Eleanor called out tentatively. She felt so silly. She turned around and almost stepped into the woman. Or was she a robot? A virtual reality Siri?

“Hello,” Janet said. “How may I help you?”

Eleanor held out her wrist. “This,” she said. “Is this a Good Place marking? It wasn’t here before I, urmm, before I died. Unless it happened right before I died and I don’t remember?” Eleanor touched the mark with her other hand. She wasn’t sure what to call it. A circle drawn by someone with a really shaky hand maybe?

Janet peered at it. “No,” Janet replied. “The Good Place does not mark people.”

“It’s not a Bad Place mark, is it?” Eleanor started to pull her shirt down over her hand.

“No,” Janet said. “That is a soulmate mark.”

Eleanor almost snorted. “A what?”

“A soulmate mark,” Janet said again. “Your soulmate will have a matching one.”

This time Eleanor did snort. “Is this for real?” she asked. “That sounds like rubbish.”

“I have never seen one,” Janet said. “They are extremely rare.”

Eleanor frowned, thought about the first time she had seen Janet. “Janet,” she said slowly. “What’s a Chidi?”

•••

Michael was freaking out. He shut his office door behind him and tried to calm his nerves. A temporary setback. That’s all this was. Just temporary.

How did it happen though? This plan had been foolproof! Reset the sequence but this time surround each of the four with fake versions of the others. He was particularly pleased with his Tahini imposters. Triplets, each one more vain and perfect than the rest. Then the Chidis, all of them superior intellectually. The Jasons who couldn’t give a shit about anyone else. And the Eleanors, causing destruction where ever they went.

But the four of them — the real four of them — had found each other, had become _friends_ , had tried to help each other.

Michael had tried to stop it, but it was like there was something connecting them …

And then he had seen it. Just an hour ago. All of them together, plotting something probably, and on their arms, matching symbols that had never been there before.

How had that happened? It had certainly not been in the plans.

But they had been talking, and he saw that look in Eleanor’s eye and she was about to figure it out, and he was fucked. He was so fucked.

But no. All he had to do was go to Shawn, get him to give him one more chance. This time it would be perfect. This time it would work. This time, there would be no marks drawing them together.

•••

It had been unexpected. Eleanor had been walking through town, trying her hardest to avoid her roommate. A girl name Jahini who would not stop talking about how perfect she was. 

“You are soulmates!” Michael had boomed upon Eleanor’s arrival, grasping both her and Jahini by the shoulder and grinning like this was the greatest news they both could have hoped to hear.

Eleanor wondered what the other — what the actual Good Place Eleanor — must have done to deserve someone like _that_ as a soulmate. She was glad she would never know, but she also needed to get away before she hauled off and punched her and everyone found out her secret and then she got shipped off to The Bad Place. That certainly had to be a fate worse than an annoying roommate. Or soulmate. Or whatever she was supposed to be.

She was so busy thinking about this, though, that she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going and crashed headlong into someone coming the other way.

“Fork, Chidi, look where you’re walking!” she yelled at this man who she had never met before.

“I’m sorry, Eleanor,” he said automatically.

Eleanor froze. So did Chidi.

“How did you know who I am?” they both said at the same time.

•••

Michael was close to hyperventilating. How was this happening? He had made so sure. They had no reason to interact, no reason to want to get to know each other. _But they had._ And worse, they seemed to know and understand each other instantly.

One minute in the same room and Eleanor and Tahini were hugging like they had been separated at birth.

No, no, no, no, no.

When Shawn found out about this, he was screwed. They weren’t going to let him reset another time. Not after he had promised that this time would work. His dreams of being the head architect, of promotion, of having the model plan would be gone. Over. Blown away. All because of these stupid four people.

“Janet!” Michael shouted, almost frantic. “Good Janet!”

She appeared. A smile on her face as always. “May I help you?” she asked politely.

“How are they doing this?” he asked desperately. “Eleanor, Jason, Chidi and Tahini. How are they finding each other?”

“That is simple,” Janet replied.

“Great. Tell me. Tell me so I can stop it.”

“They are soulmates,” Janet said, and Michael stared at her in disbelief. 

It got worse.

“They cannot be separated,” Janet said. “When they all passed, their spirits bonded. They will always find each other, no matter how many times you reset them. They are meant to be.”

“No,” Michael shook his head. “No, no, no, no, no.”

He glared at Janet, like she had brought this on. “Go!” he snarled.

“Yes, Sir,” she said, and vanished.

Soulmates. They were soulmates. Actual real connected forever soulmates.

He picked his plans off his desk, crumbled them angrily in his fist, threw them at the wall.

“Fork,” he said. “Forking fork.”


End file.
